Method for destroying virtual resources in a logically partitioned data processing system

ABSTRACT

A method for directly destroying one or more virtual resources that reside within a physical adapter and that are associated with a virtual host. Specifically, the present invention is directed to a mechanism for sharing conventional Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) I/O adapters, PCI-X I/O adapters, PCI-Express I/O adapters, and, in general, any I/O adapter that uses a memory mapped I/O interface for host to adapter communications.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to commonly assigned co-pending and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/066,424 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled“Method, System and Program Product for Differentiating Between VirtualHosts on Bus Transactions and Associating Allowable Memory Access for anInput/Output Adapter that Supports Virtualization”, status allowed; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/066,645 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled“Virtualized I/O Adapter for a Multi-Processor Data Processing System”,status pending; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/065,869 (filed Feb.25, 2005) entitled “Virtualized Fibre Channel Adapter for aMulti-Processor Data Processing System”, status pending; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/065,951 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled“Interrupt Mechanism on an IO Adapter That Supports Virtualization”,issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,260,664 on Aug. 21, 2007; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/066,201 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “Systemand Method for Modification of Virtual Adapter Resources in a LogicallyPartitioned Data Processing System”, status pending; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/065,818 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “Method,System, and Computer Program Product for Virtual Adapter Destruction ona Physical Adapter that Supports Virtual Adapters” status allowed; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/066,518 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled“System and Method of Virtual Resource Modification on a PhysicalAdapter that Supports Virtual Resources”, status pending; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/066,419 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled“Association of Memory Access Through Protection Attributes that areAssociated to an Access Control Level on a PCI Adapter that SupportsVirtualization”, status pending; U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/066,931 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “Association of HostTranslations that are Associated to an Access Control Level on a PCIBridge that Supports Virtualization”, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,398,337on Jul. 8, 2008; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/065,823 (filed Feb.25, 2005) entitled “Method, Apparatus, and Computer Program Product forCoordinating Error Reporting and Reset Utilizing an I/O Adapter thatSupports Virtualization”, status allowed; U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/068,664 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “Method and System forFully Trusted Adapter Validation of Addresses Referenced in a VirtualHost Transfer Request” status allowed; U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/066,353 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “System, Method, and ComputerProgram Product for a Fully Trusted Adapter Validation of IncomingMemory Mapped I/O Operations on a Physical Adapter that Supports VirtualAdapters or Virtual Resources”, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,386,637 onJun. 10, 2008; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/065,830 (filed Feb.25, 2005) entitled “System and Method for Host Initialization for anAdapter that Supports Virtualization”, status allowed; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/065,829 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “DataProcessing System, Method, and Computer Program Product for Creation andInitialization of a Virtual Adapter on a Physical Adapter that SupportsVirtual Adapter Level Virtualization”, status pending; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/066,517 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “Systemand Method for Virtual Resource Initialization on a Physical Adapterthat Supports Virtual Resources”, status pending; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/065,821 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “Methodand System for Native Virtualization on a Partially Trusted AdapterUsing Adapter Bus, Device and Function Number for Identification”,status pending; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/066,487 (filed Feb.25, 2005) entitled “Native Virtualization on a Partially Trusted AdapterUsing PCI Host Memory Mapped Input/Output Memory Address forIdentification”, status pending; U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/066,519 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “Native Virtualization on aPartially Trusted Adapter Using PCI Host Bus, Device, and FunctionNumber for Identification”, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,398,328 on Jul. 8,2008; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/066,521 (filed Feb. 25, 2005)entitled “System and Method for Virtual Adapter Resource Allocation”issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,376,770 on May 20, 2008; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/067,354 (filed Feb. 25, 2005) entitled “Systemand Method for Providing Quality of Service in a Virtual Adapter”,status pending; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/066,590 (filedFeb. 25, 2005) entitled “System and Method for Managing Metrics TablePer Virtual Port in a Logically Partitioned Data Processing System”,issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,308,551 on Dec. 11, 2007 all of which arehereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to communication protocolsbetween a host computer and an input/output (I/O) adapter. Inparticular, the present invention provides a mechanism by which a singlephysical I/O adapter, such as a PCI, PCI-X, or PCI-E adapter, candestroy one or more virtual resources that reside within the physicaladapter and are associated with a virtual host.

2. Description of Related Art

Virtualization is the creation of substitutes for real resources. Thesubstitutes have the same functions and external interfaces as theirreal counterparts, but differ in attributes such as size, performance,and cost. These substitutes are virtual resources and their users areusually unaware of the substitute's existence. Servers have used twobasic approaches to virtualize system resources: Partitioning andlogical partitioning (LPAR) managers. Partitioning creates virtualservers as fractions of a physical server's resources, typically incoarse (e.g. physical) allocation units (e.g. a whole processor, alongwith its associated memory and I/O adapters). LPAR managers are softwareor firmware components that can virtualize all server resources withfine granularity (e.g. in small fractions that of a single physicalresource).

In conventional data processing systems, servers that supportvirtualization had two options for handling I/O. The first option was tonot allow a single physical I/O adapter to be shared between virtualservers. The second option was to add functionality into the LPARmanager, or another intermediary, that provides the isolation necessaryto permit multiple Operating Systems to share a single physical adapter.

The first option has several problems. One significant problem is thatexpensive adapters cannot be shared between virtual servers. If avirtual server only needs to use a fraction of an expensive adapter, anentire adapter would be dedicated to the server. As the number ofvirtual servers on the physical server increases, this leads tounder-utilization of the adapters and more importantly a more expensivesolution, because each virtual server needs a physical adapter dedicatedto it. For physical servers that support many virtual servers, anothersignificant problem with this option is that it requires many adapterslots, with all the accompanying hardware (e.g. chips, connectors,cables, and the like) required to attach those adapters to the physicalserver.

Though the second option provides a mechanism for sharing adaptersbetween virtual servers, that mechanism must be invoked and executed onevery I/O transaction. The invocation and execution of the sharingmechanism by the LPAR manager or other intermediary on every I/Otransaction degrades performance. It also leads to a more expensivesolution, because the customer must purchase more hardware either tomake up for the cycles used to perform the sharing mechanism or, if thesharing mechanism is offloaded to an intermediary, for the intermediaryhardware.

It would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus, andcomputer instructions for directly destroying one or more virtualresources that reside within a physical adapter, such as a PCI, PCI-X,or PCI-E adapter, and are associated with a virtual host. It would alsobe advantageous to have the mechanism apply for adapters that support amemory mapped I/O interface, such as Ethernet NICs (Network InterfaceControllers), FC (Fibre Channel) HBAs (Host Bus Adapters), pSCSI(parallel SCSI) HBAs, InfiniBand, TCP/IP Offload Engines, RDMA (RemoteDirect Memory Access) enabled NICs (Network Interface Controllers),iSCSI adapters, iSER (iSCSI Extensions for RDMA) adapters, and the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method for directly destroying one ormore virtual resources that reside within a physical adapter, such as aPCI, PCI-X, or PCI-E adapter, and are associated with a virtual host.Specifically, the present invention is directed to a mechanism forsharing conventional Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) I/Oadapters, PCI-X I/O adapters, PCI-Express I/O adapters, and, in general,any I/O adapter that uses a memory mapped I/O interface for host toadapter communications. A mechanism is provided for directly destroyingone or more virtual resources that reside within a physical adapter,such as a PCI, PCI-X, or PCI-E adapter, and that are associated with avirtual host.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are setforth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well asa preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, willbest be understood by reference to the following detailed description ofan illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a distributed computer system illustrated inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a small host processor node inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a small integrated hostprocessor node in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a large host processor node inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the elements of the parallel PeripheralComputer Interface (PCI) bus protocol in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the elements of the serial PCI busprotocol (PCI-Express or PCI-E) in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating I/O virtualization functions providedin a host processor node in order to provide virtual host accessisolation in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the control fields used in a PCI bustransaction to identify a virtual adapter or system image in accordancewith a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating adapter resources that must bevirtualized in order to allow: an adapter to directly access virtualhost resources; allow a virtual host to directly access Adapterresources; and allow a non-PCI port on the adapter to access resourceson the adapter or host in accordance with a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the creation of three access controllevels used to manage a PCI family adapter that supports I/Ovirtualization in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating how host memory that is associatedwith a system image is made available to a virtual adapter that isassociated with that system image through the logical partitioningmanager in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating how a PCI family adapter allows alogical partitioning manager to associate memory in the PCI adapter to asystem image and its associated virtual adapter in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating one of the options for determining thevirtual adapter that is associated with an incoming memory address inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating one of the options for determining avirtual adapter that is associated with a PCI-X or PCI-E bus transactionin accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a virtual resource management approachfor virtualizing adapter resources in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 16 is a flowchart outlining an exemplary operation of thedestruction of an existing virtual resource through the virtual resourcemanagement approach described in FIG. 15 in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention applies to any general or special purpose hostthat uses a PCI family I/O adapter to directly attach a storage deviceor to attach to a network, where the network consists of endnodes,switches, routers and the links interconnecting these components. Thenetwork links can be, for example, Fibre Channel, Ethernet, InfiniBand,Advanced Switching Interconnect, or a proprietary link that usesproprietary or standard protocols. While embodiments of the presentinvention are shown and described as employing a peripheral componentinterconnect (PCI) family adapter, implementations of the invention arenot limited to such a configuration as will be apparent to those skilledin the art. Teachings of the invention may be implemented on anyphysical adapter that support a memory mapped input/output (MMIO)interface, such as, but not limited to, HyperTransport, Rapid I/O,proprietary MMIO interfaces, or other adapters having a MMIO interfacenow know or later developed. Implementations of the present inventionutilizing a PCI family adapter are provided for illustrative purposes tofacilitate an understanding of the invention.

With reference now to the figures and in particular with reference toFIG. 1, a diagram of a distributed computer system is illustrated inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Thedistributed computer system represented in FIG. 1 takes the form of anetwork, such as network 120, and is provided merely for illustrativepurposes and the embodiments of the present invention described belowcan be implemented on computer systems of numerous other types andconfigurations. Two switches (or routers) are shown inside of network120—switch 116 and switch 140. Switch 116 connects to small host node100 through port 112. Small host node 100 also contains a second type ofport 104 which connects to a direct attached storage subsystem, such asdirect attached storage 108.

Network 120 can also attach large host node 124 through port 136 whichattaches to switch 140. Large host node 124 can also contain a secondtype of port 128, which connects to a direct attached storage subsystem,such as direct attached storage 132.

Network 120 can also attach a small integrated host node which isconnected to network 120 through port 148 which attaches to switch 140.Small integrated host node 144 can also contain a second type of port152 which connects to a direct attached storage subsystem, such asdirect attached storage 156.

Turning next to FIG. 2, a functional block diagram of a small host nodeis depicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention. Small host node 202 is an example of a host processor node,such as small host node 100 shown in FIG. 1.

In this example, small host node 202, shown in FIG. 2, includes twoprocessor I/O hierarchies, such as processor I/O hierarchy 200 and 203,which are interconnected through link 201. In the illustrative exampleof FIG. 2, processor I/O hierarchy 200 includes processor chip 207 whichincludes one or more processors and their associated caches. Processorchip 207 is connected to memory 212 through link 208. One of the linkson processor chip, such as link 220, connects to PCI family I/O bridge228. PCI family I/O bridge 228 has one or more PCI family (PCI, PCI-X,PCI-Express, or any future generation of PCI) links that is used toconnect other PCI family I/O bridges or a PCI family I/O adapter, suchas PCI family adapter 244 and PCI family adapter 245, through a PCIlink, such as link 232, 236, and 240. PCI family adapter 245 can also beused to connect a network, such as network 264, through a link viaeither a switch or router, such as switch or router 260. PCI familyadapter 244 can be used to connect direct attached storage, such asdirect attached storage 252, through link 248. Processor I/O hierarchy203 may be configured in a manner similar to that shown and describedwith reference to processor I/O hierarchy 200.

With reference now to FIG. 3, a functional block diagram of a smallintegrated host node is depicted in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention. Small integrated host node 302 isan example of a host processor node, such as small integrated host node144 shown in FIG. 1.

In this example, small integrated host node 302 includes two processorI/O hierarchies 300 and 303, which are interconnected through link 301.In the illustrative example, processor I/O hierarchy 300 includesprocessor chip 304, which is representative of one or more processorsand associated caches. Processor chip 304 is connected to memory 312through link 308. One of the links on the processor chip, such as link330, connects to a PCI Family adapter, such as PCI family adapter 345.Processor chip 304 has one or more PCI family (i.e., PCI, PCI-X,PCI-Express, or any future generation of PCI) links that is used toconnect either PCI family I/O bridges or a PCI family I/O adapter, suchas PCI family adapter 344 and PCI family adapter 345 through a PCI link,such as link 316, 330, and 324. PCI family adapter 345 can also be usedto connect with a network, such as network 364, through link 356 viaeither a switch or router, such as switch or router 360. PCI familyadapter 344 can be used to connect with direct attached storage 352through link 348.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a functional block diagram of a large host nodeis depicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention. Large host node 402 is an example of a host processor node,such as large host node 124 shown in FIG. 1.

In this example, large host node 402 includes two processor I/Ohierarchies 400 and 403 interconnected through link 401. In theillustrative example of FIG. 4, processor I/O hierarchy 400 includesprocessor chip 404, which is representative of one or more processorsand associated caches. Processor chip 404 is connected to memory 412through link 408. One of the links, such as link 440, on the processorchip connects to a PCI family I/O hub, such as PCI family I/O hub 441.The PCI family I/O hub uses a network 442 to attach to a PCI family I/Obridge 448. That is, PCI family I/O bridge 448 is connected to switch orrouter 436 through link 432 and switch or router 436 also attaches toPCI family I/O hub 441 through link 443. Network 442 allows the PCIfamily I/O hub and PCI family I/O bridge to be placed in differentpackages. PCI family I/O bridge 448 has one or more PCI family (i.e.,PCI, PCI-X, PCI-Express, or any future generation of PCI) links that isused to connect with other PCI family I/O bridges or a PCI family I/Oadapter, such as PCI family adapter 456 and PCI family adapter 457through a PCI link, such as link 444, 446, and 452. PCI family adapter456 can be used to connect direct attached storage 476 through link 460.PCI family adapter 457 can also be used to connect with network 464through link 468 via, for example, either a switch or router 472.

Turning next to FIG. 5, illustrations of the phases contained in a PCIbus transaction 500 and a PCI-X bus transaction 520 are depicted inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. PCI bustransaction 500 depicts the conventional PCI bus transaction that formsthe unit of information which is transferred through a PCI fabric forconventional PCI. PCI-X bus transaction 520 depicts the PCI-X bustransaction that forms the unit of information which is transferredthrough a PCI fabric for PCI-X.

PCI bus transaction 500 shows three phases: an address phase 508; a dataphase 512; and a turnaround cycle 516. Also depicted is the arbitrationfor next transfer 504, which can occur simultaneously with the address,data, and turnaround cycle phases. For PCI, the address contained in theaddress phase is used to route a bus transaction from the adapter to thehost and from the host to the adapter.

PCI-X transaction 520 shows five phases: an address phase 528; anattribute phase 532; a response phase 560; a data phase 564; and aturnaround cycle 566. Also depicted is the arbitration for next transfer524 which can occur simultaneously with the address, attribute,response, data, and turnaround cycle phases. Similar to conventionalPCI, PCI-X uses the address contained in the address phase to route abus transaction from the adapter to the host and from the host to theadapter. However, PCI-X adds the attribute phase 532 which containsthree fields that define the bus transaction requester, namely:requestor bus number 544, requestor device number 548, and requestorfunction number 552 (collectively referred to herein as a BDF). The bustransaction also contains a tag 540 that uniquely identifies thespecific bus transaction in relation to other bus transactions that areoutstanding between the requester and a responder. The byte count 556contains a count of the number of bytes being sent.

Turning now to FIG. 6, an illustration of the phases contained in aPCI-Express bus transaction is depicted in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention. PCI-E bus transaction 600 forms theunit of information which is transferred through a PCI fabric for PCI-E.

PCI-E bus transaction 600 shows six phases: frame phase 608; sequencenumber 612; header 664; data phase 668; cyclical redundancy check (CRC)672; and frame phase 680. PCI-E header 664 contains a set of fieldsdefined in the PCI-Express-specification. The requester identifier (ID)field 628 contains three fields that define the bus transactionrequester, namely: requestor bus number 684, requestor device number688, and requester function number 692. The PCI-E header also containstag 652, which uniquely identifies the specific bus transaction inrelation to other bus transactions that are outstanding between therequester and a responder. The length field 644 contains a count of thenumber of bytes being sent.

With reference now to FIG. 7, a functional block diagram of a PCIadapter, such as PCI family adapter 736, and the firmware and softwarethat run on host hardware (e.g., processor with possibly an I/O hub orI/O bridge), such as host hardware 700, is depicted in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 also shows a logical partitioning (LPAR) manager 708 running onhost hardware 700. LPAR manager 708 may be implemented as a Hypervisormanufactured by International Business Machines, Inc. of Armonk, N.Y.LPAR manager 708 can run in firmware, software, or a combination of thetwo. LPAR manager 708 hosts two system image (SI) partitions, such assystem image 712 and system image 724 (illustratively designated systemimage 1 and system image 2). The System image partitions may berespective operating systems running in software, a special purposeimage running in software, such as a storage block server or storagefile server image, or a special purpose image running in firmware.Applications can run on these system images, such as applications 716,720, 728, and 732 (illustratively designated application 1A, application2, application 1B and application 3). Applications 716 and 728 arerepresentative of separate instances of a common application program,and are thus illustratively designated with respective references of“1A” and “1B”. In the illustrative example, application 716 and 720 runon system image 712 and applications 728 and 732 run on system image724. As referred to herein, a virtual host comprises a system image,such as system image 712, or the combination of a system image andapplications running within the system image. Thus, two virtual hostsare depicted in FIG. 7.

PCI family adapter 736 contains a set of physical adapter configurationresources 740 and physical adapter memory resources 744. The physicaladapter configuration resources 740 and physical adapter memoryresources 744 contain information describing the number of virtualadapters that PCI family adapter 736 can support and the physicalresources allocated to each virtual adapter. As referred to herein, avirtual adapter is an allocation of a subset of physical adapterresources, such as a subset of physical adapter resources and physicaladapter memory, that is associated with a logical partition, such assystem image 712 and applications 716 and 720 running on system image712. LPAR manager 708 is provided a physical configuration resourceinterface 738, and physical memory configuration interface 742 to readand write into the physical adapter configuration resource and memoryspaces during the adapter's initial configuration and reconfiguration.Through the physical configuration resource interface 738 and physicalconfiguration memory interface 742, LPAR manager 708 creates virtualadapters and assigns physical resources to each virtual adapter. TheLPAR manager 708 may use one of the system images, for example a specialsoftware or firmware partition, as a hosting partition that usesphysical configuration resource interface 738 and physical configurationmemory interface 742 to perform a portion, or even all, of the virtualadapter initial configuration and reconfiguration functions.

FIG. 7 shows a configuration of PCI family adapter 736 configured withtwo virtual adapters. A first virtual adapter (designated virtualadapter 1) comprises virtual adapter resources 748 and virtual adaptermemory 752 that were assigned by LPAR manager 708 that is associatedwith system image 712 (designated system image 1). Similarly, a secondvirtual adapter (designated virtual adapter 2) comprises virtual adapterresources 756 and virtual adapter memory 760 that were assigned by LPARmanager 708 to virtual adapter 2 and is associated with another systemimage 724 (designated system image 2). For an adapter used to connect toa direct attached storage, such as direct attached storage 108, 132, or156 shown in FIG. 1, examples of virtual adapter resources may include:the list of the associated physical disks, a list of the associatedlogical unit numbers, and a list of the associated adapter functions(e.g., redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) level). For anadapter used to connect to a network, such as network 120 of FIG. 1,examples of virtual adapter resources may include: the list of theassociated link level identifiers, a list of the associated networklevel identifiers, a list of the associated virtual fabric identifiers(e.g. Virtual LAN IDs for Ethernet fabrics, N-port IDs for Fibre Channelfabrics, and partition keys for InfiniBand fabrics), and a list of theassociated network layers functions (e.g., network offload services).

After LPAR manager 708 configures the PCI family adapter 736, eachsystem image is allowed to only communicate with the virtual adaptersthat were associated with that system image by LPAR manager 708. Asshown in FIG. 7 (by solid lines), system image 712 is allowed todirectly communicate with virtual adapter resources 748 and virtualadapter memory 752 of virtual adapter 1. System image 712 is not allowedto directly communicate with virtual adapter resources 756 and virtualadapter memory 760 of virtual adapter 2 as shown in FIG. 7 by dashedlines. Similarly, system image 724 is allowed to directly communicatewith virtual adapter resources 756 and virtual adapter memory 760 ofvirtual adapter 2, and is not allowed to directly communicate withvirtual adapter resources 748 and virtual adapter memory 752 of virtualadapter 1.

With reference now to FIG. 8, a depiction of a component, such as aprocessor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800, inside a host node, such as smallhost node 100, large host node 124, or small, integrated host node 144shown in FIG. 1, that attaches a PCI family adapter, such as PCI familyadapter 804, through a PCI-X or PCI-E link, such as PCI-X or PCI-E Link808, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present inventionis shown.

FIG. 8 shows that when a system image, such as system image 712 or 724,or LPAR manager 708, performs a PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction, such ashost to adapter PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction 812, the processor, I/Ohub, or I/O bridge 800 that connects to the PCI-X or PCI-E link 808which issues the host to adapter PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction 812fills in the bus number, device number, and function number fields inthe PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction. The processor, I/O hub, or I/Obridge 800 has two choices for how to fill in these three fields: it caneither use the same bus number, device number, and function number forall software components that use the processor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge800; or it can use a different bus number, device number, and functionnumber for each software component that uses the processor, I/O hub, orI/O bridge 800. The initiator of the transaction may be a softwarecomponent, such as system image 712 or system image 724 (or anapplication running on a system image), or LPAR manager 708.

If the processor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 uses the same bus number,device number, and function number for all transaction initiators, thenwhen a software component initiates a PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction,such as host to adapter PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction 812, theprocessor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 places the processor, I/O hub, orI/O bridge's bus number in the PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction'srequester bus number field 820, such as requester bus number 544 fieldof the PCI-X transaction shown in FIG. 5 or requestor bus number684-field of the PCI-E transaction shown in FIG. 6. Similarly, theprocessor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 places the processor, I/O hub, orI/O bridge's device number in the PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction'srequester device number 824 field, such as requester device number 548field shown in FIG. 5 or requestor device number 688 field shown in FIG.6. Finally, the processor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 places theprocessor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge's function number in the PCI-X orPCI-E bus transaction's requester function number 828 field, such asrequester function number 552 field shown in FIG. 5 or requestorfunction number 692 field shown in FIG. 6. The processor, I/O hub, orI/O bridge 800 also places in the PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction thephysical or virtual adapter memory address to which the transaction istargeted as shown by adapter resource or address 816 field in FIG. 8.

If the processor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 uses a different busnumber, device number, and function number for each transactioninitiator, then the processor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 assigns a busnumber, device number, and function number to the transaction initiator.When a software component initiates a PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction,such as host to adapter PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction 812, theprocessor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 places the software component'sbus number in the PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction's requester bus number820 field, such as requestor bus number 544 field shown in FIG. 5 orrequestor bus number 684 field shown in FIG. 6. Similarly, theprocessor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 places the software component'sdevice number in the PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction's requestor devicenumber 824 field, such as requestor device number 548 field shown inFIG. 5 or requester device number 688 field shown in FIG. 6. Finally,the processor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 places the softwarecomponent's function number in the PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction'srequester function number 828 field, such as requester function number552 field shown in FIG. 5 or requestor function number 692 field shownin FIG. 6. The processor, I/O hub, or I/O bridge 800 also places in thePCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction the physical or virtual adapter memoryaddress to which the transaction is targeted as shown by adapterresource or address field 816 in FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 also shows that when physical or virtual adapter 806 performsPCI-X or PCI-E bus transactions, such as adapter to host PCI-X or PCI-Ebus transaction 832, the PCI family adapter, such as physical familyadapter 804, that connects to PCI-X or PCI-E Link 808 which issues theadapter to host PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction 832 places the busnumber, device number, and function number associated with the physicalor virtual adapter that initiated the bus transaction in the requestorbus number, device number, and function number 836, 840, and 844 fields.Notably, to support more than one bus or device number, PCI familyadapter 804 must support one or more internal busses (for a PCI-Xadapter, see the PCI-X Addendum to the PCI Local Bus SpecificationRevision 1.0 or 1.0a; for a PCI-E Adapter see PCI-Express BaseSpecification Revision 1.0 or 1.0a the details of which are hereinincorporated by reference). To perform this function, LPAR manager 708associates each physical or virtual adapter to a software componentrunning by assigning a bus number, device number, and function number tothe physical or virtual adapter. When the physical or virtual adapterinitiates an adapter to host PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction, PCI familyadapter 804 places the physical or virtual adapter's bus number in thePCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction's requester bus number 836 field, such asrequestor bus number 544 field shown in FIG. 5 or requestor bus number684 field shown in FIG. 6 (shown in FIG. 8 as adapter bus number 836).Similarly, PCI family adapter 804 places the physical or virtualadapter's device number in the PCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction'srequester device number 840 field, such as requester device Number 548field shown in FIG. 5 or requestor device number 688 field shown in FIG.6 (shown in FIG. 8 as adapter device number 840). PCI family adapter 804places the physical or virtual adapter's function number in the PCI-X orPCI-E bus transaction's requester function number 844 field, such asrequestor function number 552 field shown in FIG. 5 or requesterfunction number 692 field shown in FIG. 6 (shown in FIG. 8 as adapterfunction number 844). Finally, PCI family adapter 804 also places in thePCI-X or PCI-E bus transaction the memory address of the softwarecomponent that is associated, and targeted by, the physical or virtualadapter in host resource or address 848 field.

With reference now to FIG. 9, a functional block diagram of a PCIadapter with two virtual adapters depicted in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. Exemplary PCIfamily adapter 900 is configured with two virtual adapters 916 and 920(illustratively designated virtual adapter 1 and virtual adapter 2). PCIfamily adapter 900 may contain one (or more) PCI family adapter ports(also referred to herein as an upstream port), such as PCI-X or PCI-Eadapter port 912. PCI family adapter 900 may also contain one (or more)device or network ports (also referred to herein as downstream ports),such as physical port 904 and physical port 908.

FIG. 9 also shows the types of resources that can be virtualized on aPCI adapter. The resources of PCI family adapter 900 that may bevirtualized include processing queues, address and configuration memory,PCI ports, host memory management resources and device or network ports.In the illustrative example, virtualized resources of PCI family adapter900 allocated to virtual adapter 916 include, for example, processingqueues 924, address and configuration memory 928, PCI virtual port 936,host memory management resources 984 (such as memory region registrationand memory window binding resources on InfiniBand or iWARP), and virtualdevice or network ports, such as virtual external port 932 and virtualexternal port 934 (more generally referred to as virtual ports).Similarly, virtualized resources of PCI family adapter 900 allocated tovirtual adapter 920 include, for example, processing queues 940, addressand configuration memory 944, PCI virtual port 952, host memorymanagement resources 980, and virtual device or network ports, such asvirtual external port 948 and virtual external port 950.

Turning next to FIG. 10, a functional block diagram of the accesscontrol levels on a PCI family adapter, such as PCI family adapter 900shown in FIG. 9, is depicted in accordance with a preferred embodimentof the present invention. The three levels of access are asuper-privileged physical resource allocation level 1000, a privilegedvirtual resource allocation level 1008, and a non-privileged level,1016.

The functions performed at the super-privileged physical resourceallocation level 1000 include but are not limited to: PCI family adapterqueries, creation, modification and deletion of virtual adapters,submission and retrieval of work, reset and recovery of the physicaladapter, and allocation of physical resources to a virtual adapterinstance. The PCI family adapter queries are used to determine, forexample, the physical adapter type (e.g., Fibre Channel, Ethernet,iSCSI, parallel SCSI), the functions supported on the physical adapter,and the number of virtual adapters supported by the PCI family adapter.The LPAR manager, such as LPAR manager 708 shown in FIG. 7, performs thephysical adapter resource management 1004 functions associated withsuper-privileged physical resource allocation level 1000. However, theLPAR manager may use a system image, for example an I/O hostingpartition, to perform the physical adapter resource management 1004functions.

The functions-performed at the-privileged virtual resource allocationlevel 1008 include., for example, virtual adapter queries, allocationand initialization of virtual adapter resources, reset and recovery ofvirtual adapter resources, submission and retrieval of work throughvirtual adapter resources, and, for virtual adapters that supportoffload services, allocation and assignment of virtual adapter resourcesto a middleware process or thread instance. The virtual adapter queriesare used to determine: the virtual adapter type (e.g., Fibre Channel,Ethernet, iSCSI, parallel SCSI) and the functions supported on thevirtual adapter. A system image, such as system image 712 shown in FIG.7, performs the privileged virtual adapter resource management 1012functions associated with virtual resource allocation level 1008.

Finally, the functions performed at the non-privileged level 1016include, for example, query of virtual adapter resources that have beenassigned to software running at the non-privileged level 1016 andsubmission and retrieval of work through virtual adapter resources thathave been assigned to software running at the non-privileged level 1016.An application, such as application 716 shown in FIG. 7, performs thevirtual adapter access library 1020 functions associated withnon-privileged level 1016.

Turning next to FIG. 11, a functional block diagram of host memoryaddresses that are made accessible to a PCI family adapter is depictedin accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. PCIfamily adapter 1101 is an example of PCI family adapter 900 that mayhave virtualized resources as described above in FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 depicts four different mechanisms by which a LPAR manager 708can associate host memory to a system image and to a virtual adapter.Once host memory has been associated with a system image and a virtualadapter, the virtual adapter can then perform DMA write and readoperations directly to the host memory. System images 1108 and 1116 areexamples of system images, such as system images 712 and 724 describedabove with reference to FIG. 7, that are respectively associated withvirtual adapters 1108 and 1112. Virtual adapters 1104 and 1112 areexamples of virtual adapters, such as virtual adapters 916 and 920described above with reference to FIG. 9, that comprise respectiveallocations of virtual adapter resources and virtual adapter memory.

The first exemplary mechanism that LPAR manager 708 can use to associateand make available host memory to a system image and to one or morevirtual adapters is to write into the virtual adapter's resources asystem image association list 1122. Virtual adapter resources 1120contains a list of PCI bus addresses, where each PCI bus address in thelist is associated by the platform hardware to the starting address of asystem image (SI) page, such as SI 1 page 1 1128 through SI 1 page N1136 allocated to system image 1108. Virtual adapter resources 1120 alsocontain the page size, which is equal for all the pages in the list. Atinitial configuration, and during reconfigurations, LPAR manager 708loads system image association list 1122 into virtual adapter resources1120. The system image association list 1122 defines the set ofaddresses that virtual adapter 1104 can use in DMA write and readoperations. After the system image association list 1122 has beencreated, virtual adapter 1104 must validate that each DMA write or DMAread requested by system image 1108 is contained within a page in thesystem image association list 1122. If the DMA write or DMA readrequested by system image 1108 is contained within a page in the systemimage association list 1122, then virtual adapter 1104 may perform theoperation. Otherwise virtual adapter 1104 is prohibited from performingthe operation. Alternatively, the PCI family adapter 1101 may use aspecial, LPAR manager-style virtual adapter (rather than virtual adapter1104 to perform the check that determines if a DMA write or DMA readrequested by system image 1108 is contained within a page in the systemimage association list 1122. In a similar manner, virtual adapter 1112associated with system image 1116 validates DMA write or read requestssubmitted by system image 1116. Particularly, virtual adapter 1112provides validation for DMA read and write requests from system image1116 by determining whether the DMA write or read request is in a pagein system image association list (configured in a manner similarly tosystem image association list 1122) associated with system image pagesof system image 1116.

The second mechanism that LPAR manager 708 can use to associate and makeavailable host memory to a system image and to one or more virtualadapters is to write a starting page address and page size into systemimage association list 1122 in the virtual adapter's resources. Forexample, virtual adapter resources 1120 may contain a single PCI busaddress that is associated by the platform hardware to the startingaddress of a system image page, such as SI 1 page 1 1128. System imageassociation list 1122 in virtual adapter resources 1120 also containsthe size of the page. At initial configuration, and duringreconfigurations, LPAR manager 708 loads the page size and starting pageaddress into system image association list 1122 into the virtual adapterresources 1120. The system image association list 1122 defines the setof addresses that virtual adapter 1104 can use in DMA write and readoperations. After the system image association list 1122 has beencreated, virtual adapter 1104 validates whether each DMA write or DMAread requested by system image 1108 is contained within a page in systemimage association list 1122. If the DMA write or DMA read requested bysystem image 1108 is contained within a page in the system imageassociation list 1122, then virtual adapter 1104 may perform theoperation. Otherwise, virtual adapter 1104 is prohibited from performingthe operation. Alternatively, the PCI family adapter 1101 may use aspecial, LPAR manager-style virtual adapter (rather than virtual adapter1104) to perform the check that determines if a DMA write or DMA readrequested by system image 1108 is contained within a page in the systemimage association list 1122. In a similar manner, virtual adapter 1112associated with system image 1116 may validate DMA write or readrequests submitted by system image 1116. Particularly, a system imageassociation list similar to system image association list 1122 may beassociated with virtual adapter 1112. The system image association listassociated with virtual adapter 1112 is loaded with a page size andstarting page address of a system image page of system image 1116associated with virtual adapter 1112. The system image association listassociated with virtual adapter 1112 thus provides a mechanism forvalidation of DMA read and write requests from system image 1116 bydetermining whether the DMA write or read request is in a page in asystem image association list associated with system image pages ofsystem image 1116.

The third mechanism that LPAR manager 708 can use to associate and makeavailable host memory to a system image and to one or more virtualadapters is to write into the virtual adapter's resources a system imagebuffer association list 1154. In FIG. 11, virtual adapter resources 1150contains a list of PCI bus address pairs (starting and ending address),where each pair of PCI bus addresses in the list is associated by theplatform hardware to a pair (starting and ending) of addresses of asystem image buffer, such as SI 2 buffer 1 1166 through SI 1 buffer N1180 allocated to system image 1116. At initial configuration, andduring reconfigurations, LPAR manager 708 loads system image bufferassociation list 1154 into the virtual adapter resources 1150. Thesystem image buffer association list 1154 defines the set of addressesthat virtual adapter 1112 can use in DMA write and read operations.After the system image buffer association list 1154 has been created,virtual adapter 1112 validates whether each DMA write or DMA readrequested by system image 1116 is contained within a buffer in systemimage buffer association list 1154. If the DMA write or DMA readrequested by system image 1116 is contained within a buffer in thesystem image buffer association list 1154, then virtual adapter 1112 mayperform the operation. Otherwise, virtual adapter 1112 is prohibitedfrom performing the operation. Alternatively, the PCI family adapter1101 may use a special, LPAR manager-style virtual adapter (rather thanvirtual adapter 1112) to perform the check that determines if DMA writeor DMA read operations requested by system image 1116 is containedwithin a buffer in the system image buffer association list 1154. In asimilar manner, virtual adapter 1104 associated with system image 1108may validate DMA write or read requests submitted by system image 1108.Particularly, virtual adapter 1104 provides validation for DMA read andwrite requests from system image 1108 by determining whether the DMAwrite or read requested by system image 1108 is contained within abuffer in a buffer association list that contains PCI bus starting andending address pairs in association with system image buffer startingand ending address pairs of buffers allocated to system image 1108 in amanner similar to that described above for system image 1116 and virtualadapter 1112.

The fourth mechanism that LPAR manager 708 can use to associate and makeavailable host memory to a system image and to one or more virtualadapters is to write into the virtual adapter's resources a singlestarting and ending address in system image buffer association list1154. In FIG. 11, virtual adapter resources 1150 contains a single pairof PCI bus starting and ending address that is associated by theplatform hardware to a pair (starting and ending) of addressesassociated with a system image buffer, such as SI 2 buffer 1 1166. Atinitial configuration, and during reconfigurations, LPAR manager 708loads the starting and ending addresses of SI 2 buffer 1166 into thesystem image buffer association list 1154 in virtual adapter resources1150. The system image buffer association list 1154 then defines the setof addresses that virtual adapter 1112 can use in DMA write and readoperations. After the system image buffer association list 1154 has beencreated, virtual adapter 1112 validates whether each DMA write or DMAread requested by system image 1116 is contained within the system imagebuffer association list 1154. If the DMA write or DMA read requested bysystem image 1116 is contained within system image buffer associationlist 1154, then virtual adapter 1112 may perform the operation.Otherwise, virtual adapter 1112 is prohibited from performing theoperation. Alternatively, the PCI family adapter 1101 may use a special,LPAR manager-style virtual adapter (rather than virtual adapter 1150) toperform the check that determines if DMA write or DMA read requested bysystem image 1116 is contained within a page system image bufferassociation list 1154. In a similar manner, virtual adapter 1104associated with system image 1108 may validate DMA write or readrequests submitted by system image 1108. Particularly, virtual adapter1104 provides validation for DMA read and write requests from systemimage 1108 by determining whether the DMA write or read requested bysystem image 1108 is contained within a buffer in a buffer associationlist that contains a single PCI bus starting and ending address inassociation with a system image buffer starting and ending addressallocated to system image 1108 in a manner similar to that describedabove for system image 1116 and virtual adapter 1112.

Turning next to FIG. 12, a functional block diagram of a PCI familyadapter configured with memory addresses that are made accessible to asystem image is depicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 12 depicts four different mechanisms by which a LPAR manager canassociate PCI family adapter memory to a virtual adapter, such asvirtual adapter 1204, and to a system image, such as system image 1208.Once PCI family adapter memory has been associated to a system image anda virtual adapter, the system image can then perform Memory Mapped I/Owrite and read (i.e., store and load) operations directly to the PCIfamily adapter memory.

A notable difference between the system image and virtual adapterconfiguration shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 exists. In the configurationshown in FIG. 11, PCI family adapter 1101 only holds a list of hostaddresses that do not have any local memory associated with them. If thePCI family adapter supports flow-through traffic, then data arriving onan external port can directly flow through the PCI family adapter and betransferred, through DMA writes, directly into these host addresses.Similarly, if the PCI family adapter-supports flow-through traffic, thendata from these host addresses can directly flow through the PCI familyadapter and be transferred out of an external port. Accordingly, PCIfamily adapter 1101 shown in FIG. 11 does not include local adaptermemory and thus is unable to initiate a DMA operation. On the otherhand, PCI family adapter 1201 shown in FIG. 12 has local adapter memorythat is associated with the list of host memory addresses. PCI familyadapter 1201 can initiate, for example, DMA writes from its local memoryto the host memory or DMA reads from the host memory to its localmemory. Similarly, the host can initiate, for example, Memory Mapped I/Owrites from its local memory to the PCI family adapter memory or MemoryMapped I/O reads from the PCI family adapter memory to the host's localmemory.

The first and second mechanisms that LPAR manager 708 can use toassociate and make available PCI family adapter memory to a system imageand to a virtual adapter is to write into the PCI family adapter'sphysical adapter memory translation table 1290 a page size and thestarting address of one (first mechanism) or more (second mechanism)pages. In this case all pages have the same size. For example, FIG. 12depicts a set of pages that have been mapped between the system image1208 and virtual adapter 1204. Particularly, SI 1 page 1 1224 through SI1 page N 1242 of system image 1208 are mapped (illustratively shown byinterconnected arrows) to virtual adapter memory pages 1224-1232 ofphysical adapter 1201 local memory. For system image 1208, all pages1224-1242 in the list have the same size. At initial configuration, andduring reconfigurations, LPAR manager 708 loads the PCI family adapter'sphysical adapter memory translation table 1290 with the page size andthe starting address of one or more pages. The physical adapter memorytranslation table 1290 then defines the set of addresses that virtualadapter 1204 can use in DMA write and read operations. After physicaladapter memory translation table 1290 has been created, PCI familyadapter 1201 (or virtual adapter 1204) validates that each DMA write orDMA read requested by system image 1208 is contained in the physicaladapter memory translation table 1290 and is associated with virtualadapter 1204. If the DMA write or DMA read requested by system image1208 is contained in the physical adapter memory translation table 1290and is associated with virtual adapter 1204, then virtual adapter 1204may perform the operation. Otherwise, virtual adapter 1204 is prohibitedfrom performing the operation. The physical adapter memory translationtable 1290 also defines the set of addresses that system image 1208 canuse in Memory Mapped I/O (MMIO) write and read operations. Afterphysical adapter memory translation table 1290 has been created, PCIfamily adapter 1201 (or virtual adapter 1204) validates whether theMemory Mapped I/O write or read requested by system image 1208 iscontained in the physical adapter memory translation table 1290 and isassociated with virtual adapter 1204. If the MMIO write or MMIO readrequested by system image 1208 is contained in the physical adaptermemory translation table 1290 associated with virtual adapter 1204, thenvirtual adapter 1204 may perform the operation. Otherwise virtualadapter 1204 is prohibited from performing the operation. It should beunderstood that other system images and associated virtual adapters,e.g., system image 1216 and virtual adapter 1212, are configured in asimilar manner for PCI family adapter 1201 (or virtual adapter 1212)validation of DMA operations and MMIO operations requested by systemimage 1216.

The third and fourth mechanisms that LPAR manager 708 can use toassociate and make available PCI family adapter memory to a system imageand to a virtual adapter is to write into the PCI family adapter'sphysical adapter memory translation table 1290 one (third mechanism) ormore (fourth mechanism) buffer starting and ending addresses (orstarting address and length). In this case, the buffers may havedifferent sizes. For example, FIG. 12 depicts a set of varying sizedbuffers that have been mapped between system image 1216 and virtualadapter 1212. Particularly, SI 2 buffer 1 1244 through SI 2 buffer N1248 of system image 1216 are mapped to virtual adapter buffers1258-1274 of virtual adapter 1212. For system image 1216, the buffers inthe list have different sizes. At initial configuration, and duringreconfigurations, LPAR manager 708 loads the PCI family adapter'sphysical adapter memory translation table 1290 with the starting andending address (or starting address and length) of one or more pages.The physical adapter memory translation table 1290 then defines the setof addresses that virtual adapter 1212 can use in DMA write and readoperations. After physical adapter memory translation table 1290 hasbeen created, PCI family adapter 1201 (or virtual adapter 1212)validates that each DMA write or DMA read requested by system image 1216is contained in the physical adapter memory translation table 1290 andis associated with virtual adapter 1212. If the DMA write or DMA readrequested by system image 1216 is contained in the physical adaptermemory translation table 1290 and is associated with virtual adapter1212, then virtual adapter 1212 may perform the operation. Otherwise,virtual adapter 1212 is prohibited from performing the operation. Thephysical adapter memory translation table 1290 also defines the set ofaddresses that system image 1216 can use in Memory Mapped I/O (MMIO)write and read operations. After physical adapter memory translationtable 1290 has been created, PCI family adapter 1201 (or virtual adapter1212) validates whether a MMIO write or read requested by system image1216 is contained in the physical adapter memory translation table 1290and is associated with virtual adapter 1212. If the MMIO write or MMIOread requested by system image 1216 is contained in the physical adaptermemory translation table 1290 and is associated with virtual adapter1212, then virtual adapter 1212 may perform the operation. Otherwisevirtual adapter 1212 is prohibited from performing the operation. Itshould be understood that other system images and associated virtualadapters, e.g., system image 1208 and associated virtual adapter 1204,are configured in a similar manner for PCI family adapter 1201 (orvirtual adapter 1204) validation of DMA operations and MMIO operationsrequested by system image 1216.

With reference next to FIG. 13, a functional block diagram of a PCIfamily adapter and a physical address memory translation table, such asa buffer table or a page table, is depicted in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 also depicts four mechanisms for how an address referenced in anincoming PCI bus transaction 1304 can be used to look up the virtualadapter resources (including the local PCI family adapter memory addressthat has been mapped to the host address), such as virtual adapterresources 1398 or virtual adapter 1394 resources, associated with thememory address.

The first mechanism is to compare the memory address of incoming PCI bustransaction 1304 with each row of high address 1316 and low address 1320in buffer table 1390. If incoming PCI bus transaction 1304 has anaddress that is lower than the contents of high address 1316 cell andthat is higher than the contents of low address 1320 cell, then incomingPCI bus transaction 1304 is within the high address and low addresscells that are associated with the corresponding virtual adapter. Insuch a scenario, the incoming PCI bus transaction 1304 is allowed to beperformed on the matching virtual adapter. Alternatively, if incomingPCI bus transaction 1304 has an address that is not between the contentsof high address 1316 cell and the contents of low address 1320 cell,then completion or processing of incoming PCI bus transaction 1304 isprohibited. The second mechanism is to simply allow a single entry inbuffer table 1390 per virtual adapter.

The third mechanism is to compare the memory address of incoming PCI bustransaction 1304 with each row of page starting address 1322 and witheach row of page starting address 1322 plus the page size in the pagetable 1392. If incoming PCI bus transaction 1304 has an address that ishigher than or equal to the contents of page starting address 1322 celland lower than page starting address 1322 cell plus the page size, thenincoming PCI bus transaction 1304 is within a page that is associatedwith a virtual adapter. Accordingly, incoming PCI bus transaction 1304is allowed to be performed on the matching virtual adapter.Alternatively, if incoming PCI bus transaction 1304 has an address thatis not within the contents of page starting address 1322 cell and pagestarting address 1322 cell plus the page size, then completion ofincoming PCI bus transaction 1304 is prohibited. The fourth mechanism isto simply allow a single entry in page table 1392 per virtual adapter.

With reference next to FIG. 14, a functional block diagram of a PCIfamily adapter and a physical address memory translation table, such asa buffer table, a page table, or an indirect local address table, isdepicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 14 also depicts several mechanisms for how a requestor bus number,such as host bus number 1408, a requester device number, such as hostdevice number 1412, and a requester function number, such as hostfunction number 1416, referenced in incoming PCI bus transaction 1404can be used to index into either buffer table 1498, page table 1494, orindirect local address table 1464. Buffer table 1498 is representativeof buffer table 1390 shown in FIG. 13. Page table 1490 is representativeof page table 1392 shown in FIG. 13. Local address table 1464 contains alocal PCI family adapter memory address that references either a buffertable, such as buffer table 1438, or a page table, such as page table1434, that only contains host memory addresses that are mapped to thesame virtual adapter.

The requester bus number, such as host bus number 1408, requester devicenumber, such as host device number 1412, and requester function number,such as host function number 1416, referenced in incoming PCI bustransaction 1404 provides an additional check beyond the memory addressmappings that were set up by a host .LPAR manager.

Turning next to FIG. 15, a virtual resource level management approach isdepicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention. Under this approach, a physical or virtual host creates oneor more virtual resources on physical adapter 1574, such as a processingqueue 1594, a virtual PCI port 1592, a virtual downstream port 1588 and1590, and a memory translation and protection table (ATPT) 1576. Virtualresources are manipulated and identified individually. For example, acollection of virtual resources may be individually created andassociated with a host side system image. Each virtual resourceassociated with a system image has a respective identifier, such as abus, device, and function number. A manipulation of a virtual resourceis performed independently of other virtual resources. Thus, forexample, a set of virtual resource creation functions may be performedto create a set of virtual resources that are associated with a systemimage. No construct or container entity collectively defines a set ofvirtual resources in the virtual resource level management approach.

With reference next to FIG. 16, a flowchart of an exemplary virtualresource destruction routine for destroying one or more virtualresources on a physical adapter that uses the virtual resource levelmanagement approach described above in FIG. 15 is depicted in accordancewith a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

A virtual resource destroy request to destroy one, more than one (butnot all), or all virtual resources is invoked (step 1600). For example,the virtual resource destroy request may, for example, be invoked byeither a user management interface or an automated script/workflow. Avirtual resource or multiple virtual resources to be destroyed isreferenced in the virtual resource destroy request and may be, forexample, any of the following virtual resources: a downstream virtualID; a protection domain; an adapter processing queue(s); an adapter bus,device and function number; a host address list; a host bus, device, andfunction number; a Verb memory translation and protection table; hostaddress translation and protection table; or a multiple-system interrupt(MSI) level.

The LPAR manager directly or through an intermediary uses the physicaladapter's memory management interface (i.e. the memory mapped I/Oaddresses that are used for virtual adapter configuration management) torequest that the physical adapter destroy one or more virtual resourcesspecified in the virtual resource destroy request (step 1604).

The physical adapter then checks to see if the virtual resource destroyrequest is for a physical virtual resource destroy, that is a requestfor the destruction of all virtual resources (step 1608). If the virtualresource destroy request is for the destruction of all virtualresources, then the physical adapter destroys all existing virtualresources (step 1612). For example, the physical adapter may reset allvirtual resources and destroy the virtual resources by freeing all othervirtual resources associated with the reset virtual resources. Thephysical adapter then returns to the LPAR manager the results of thevirtual resource destroy operation (step 1632). The results may indicatethe virtual resource destroy operation was successfully completed if thevirtual resources were destroyed, or the results may indicate an errorcode if for some reason the virtual resources could not be destroyed.When a virtual resource is destroyed, the physical adapter purges anyresidual data from the virtual resource and resets the virtual resourceto its initial state to prevent data migration between system partitionsin accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Returning again to step 1608, if it is determined that the virtualresource destroy request is not a physical destroy request, the virtualresource destroy routine then evaluates whether the virtual resourcedestroy request is a normal destroy request of a virtual resource (step1624). As referred to herein, a normal destroy request is a destroyrequest that allows any work-in-progress that utilizes the virtualresource to complete prior to the destroy operation being performed onthe virtual resource. An abnormal, or forced, destroy request is avirtual resource destroy operation that performs the virtual resourcedestruction regardless of whether there is outstanding work or not beingperformed or pending on the virtual resource. An abnormal destroyrequest may, for example, be performed when a normal destroy requestdoes not successfully execute because of an error condition. If it isdetermined that the destroy request is not a normal virtual destroyrequest at step 1624, the physical adapter proceeds to destroy theexisting virtual resource (step 1630). If it is determined at step 1624that the virtual resource destroy request is a normal destroy request ofa virtual resource, then the physical adapter evaluates whether thevirtual resource is a queue and, if so, whether the queue still has I/Otransactions outstanding on it (step 1626).

If it is determined that the virtual resource is a queue that has I/Otransactions outstanding on it, then the physical adapter waits for alloutstanding I/O transactions to either complete successfully or timeout(step 1628). When all outstanding transactions complete or timeout, thephysical adapter destroys the existing virtual resource and frees allvirtual resources associated with it in accordance with step 1630.Again, the physical adapter ensures that no residual data remains afterthe destroy request is completed. All affected adapter resources must bereturned to the initial state. The physical adapter then returns to theLPAR manager the results of the operation according to step 1632. Theresults may, for example, indicate that: the virtual resource destroyoperation was completed successfully if the I/O transactions completedsuccessfully and the virtual resource was destroyed; the virtualresource destroy operation was completed successfully after a timeout ifsome of the I/O transactions were timed out and the virtual resource wassubsequently destroyed; or an error code if for some reason the virtualresource could not be destroyed.

Returning again to step 1626, if the virtual resource is not a queue, orif it is a queue but has no I/O transactions outstanding on it, then thephysical adapter destroys the existing virtual resource by freeing anyvirtual resources associated with it according to step 1630 and ensuringthat no residual data is left in the resource. After the physicaladapter destroys the virtual resource according to step 1630, thephysical adapter then returns to the LPAR manager the results of theoperation according to step 1632. The results of the virtual resourcedestroy request indicate the operation completed successfully if thevirtual resource was destroyed. Alternatively, the results indicate anerror code if for some reason the virtual resource could not bedestroyed.

The description of the present invention has been presented for purposesof illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention, the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

1. A method of resetting a particular virtual resource in a dataprocessing system that includes a plurality of different system images,each one of the plurality of system images independently executing itsown operating system, the method comprising the computer implementedsteps of: creating a physical host memory translation table in a hostmemory, wherein the physical host memory translation table includes aplurality of sets of system image pages, and further wherein each one ofthe plurality of sets of system image pages is mapped to a correspondingone of a plurality of virtual adapters in a physical adapter; creating aphysical adapter memory translation table in the physical adapter,wherein the physical adapter memory translation table includes aplurality of sets of virtual adapter memory locations and an associationof each one of the plurality of sets of virtual adapter memory locationswith a corresponding one of the plurality of system images; for each oneof the plurality of virtual adapters: assigning a unique identifier tothe virtual adapter, wherein virtual resources contained by the virtualadapter are identified in the physical adapter memory translation tableusing the unique identifier; and manipulating the virtual resourcescontained by the virtual adapter using only the unique identifier thatidentifies the virtual adapter; invoking, by a particular one of theplurality of system images, a request to destroy a particular virtualresource, wherein the request includes a particular unique identifierthat is assigned to the particular virtual resource; conveying therequest to the physical adapter by a logical partitioning managerinterfacing with a memory management interface of the physical adapter;and responsive to receipt of the request by the physical adapter;freeing all other virtual resources that are associated with theparticular virtual resource; purging residual data from the particularvirtual resource; and resetting the particular virtual resource to itsinitial state.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of invoking isperformed by a user management interface that interfaces with thelogical partitioning manager.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein thephysical adapter comprises a peripheral component interconnect familyadapter.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular virtualresource is a queue, the method further including: evaluating whetherthe queue has an outstanding input/output transaction remaining to beprocessed.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the queue has anoutstanding input/output transaction, the method further comprising:waiting for the outstanding input/output transaction to complete priorto resetting the particular virtual resource.
 6. A computer programproduct, which is stored in a computer-readable medium, for resetting aparticular virtual resource in a data processing system that includes aplurality of different system images, each one of the plurality ofsystem images independently executing its own operating system, thecomputer program product comprising: instructions for creating aphysical host memory translation table in a host memory, wherein thephysical host memory translation table includes a plurality of sets ofsystem image pages, and further wherein each one of the plurality ofsets of system image pages is mapped to a corresponding one of aplurality of virtual adapters in a physical adapter; instructions forcreating a physical adapter memory translation table in the physicaladapter, wherein the physical adapter memory translation table includesa plurality of sets of virtual adapter memory locations and anassociation of each one of the plurality of sets of virtual adaptermemory locations with a corresponding one of the plurality of systemimages; for each one of the plurality of virtual adapters: instructionsfor assigning a unique identifier to the virtual adapter, whereinvirtual resources contained by the virtual adapter are identified in thephysical adapter memory translation table using the unique identifier;and instructions for manipulating the virtual resources contained by thevirtual adapter using only the unique identifier that identifies thevirtual adapter; instructions for invoking, by a particular one of theplurality of system images, a request to destroy a particular virtualresource, wherein the request includes a particular unique identifierthat is assigned to the particular virtual resource; instructions forconveying the request to the physical adapter by a logical partitioningmanager interfacing with a memory management interface of the physicaladapter; and responsive to receipt of the request by the physicaladapter; instructions for freeing all other virtual resources that areassociated with the particular virtual resource; instructions forpurging residual data from the particular virtual resource; andinstructions for resetting the particular virtual resource to itsinitial state.
 7. The computer program product of claim 6, whereininvoking a request to destroy the particular resource is performed by auser management interface that interfaces with the logical partitioningmanager.
 8. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein thephysical adapter comprises a peripheral component interconnect familyadapter.
 9. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein theparticular virtual resource is a queue, and the computer program productfurther comprising: instructions for evaluating whether the queue has anoutstanding input/output transaction remaining to be processed.
 10. Thecomputer program product of claim 9, wherein the queue has anoutstanding input/output transaction, and the computer program productfurther comprising: instructions for waiting for the outstandinginput/output transaction to complete prior to resetting the particularvirtual resource.
 11. A data processing system for resetting aparticular virtual resource in the data processing system that includesa plurality of different system images, each one of the plurality ofsystem images independently executing its own operating system, the dataprocessing system comprising: creating means for creating a physicalhost memory translation table in a host memory, wherein the physicalhost memory translation table includes a plurality of sets of systemimage pages, and further wherein each one of the plurality of sets ofsystem image pages is mapped to a corresponding one of a plurality ofvirtual adapters in a physical adapter; creating means for creating aphysical adapter memory translation table in the physical adapter,wherein the physical adapter memory translation table includes aplurality of sets of virtual adapter memory locations and an associationof each one of the plurality of sets of virtual adapter memory locationswith a corresponding one of the plurality of system images; for each oneof the plurality of virtual adapters: assigning means for assigning aunique identifier to the virtual adapter, wherein virtual resourcescontained by the virtual adapter are identified in the physical adaptermemory translation table using the unique identifier; and manipulatingmeans for manipulating the virtual resources contained by the virtualadapter using only the unique identifier that identifies the virtualadapter; invoking means for invoking, by a particular one of theplurality of system images, a request to destroy a particular virtualresource, wherein the request includes a particular unique identifierthat is assigned to the particular virtual resource; conveying means forconveying the request to the physical adapter by a logical partitioningmanager interfacing with a memory management interface of the physicaladapter; and responsive to receipt of the request by the physicaladapter; freeing means for freeing all other virtual resources that areassociated with the particular virtual resource; purging means forpurging residual data from the particular virtual resource; andresetting means for resetting the particular virtual resource to itsinitial state.
 12. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein theinvoking means for invoking is a user management interface thatinterfaces with the logical partitioning manager.
 13. The dataprocessing system of claim 11, wherein the physical adapter comprises aperipheral component interconnect family adapter.
 14. The dataprocessing system of claim 11, wherein the particular virtual resourceis a queue, and the data processing system further including: evaluatingmeans for evaluating whether the queue has an outstanding input/outputtransaction remaining to be processed.
 15. The data processing system ofclaim 14, wherein the queue has an outstanding input/output transaction,and the data processing system further comprising: waiting means forwaiting for the outstanding input/output transaction to complete priorto resetting the particular virtual resource.